Survival Seed Bank's pitch should be familiar to Beck's viewers -- "Are you worried about the economy?" -- only the product is different. Although the popular program lost sponsors after the host called President Barack Obama a racist, it's held on to those that target people who worry about big government and a financial collapse, such as the gold coin dealer Goldline.
"Are you ever worried that the politicians and the bankers are going to bring the whole thing crashing down?" asks the commercial that first aired on Beck's show Monday. It goes on to explain that "in an economic meltdown, non-hybrid seeds could become more valuable than even silver and gold" and will be "the ultimate barter item."
"You don't have to be an Old Testament prophet to see what's going on all around us. A belligerent lower class demanding handouts. A rapidly diminishing middle class crippled by police state bureaucracy. An aloof, ruling elite that has introduced us to an emerging totalitarianism which seeks control over every aspect of our lives. As the meltdown progresses, one of the first things to be affected will be our nation's food supply ... If you don't have the ability to grow your own food next year, your life may be in danger."
For $150, the company will sell you packages of 22 varieties of seeds -- enough to plant an acre of beans, tomatoes, corn, lettuce and more in a "crisis garden." And these aren't just any seeds. They are "super seeds, grown by small, fiercely independent farmers" in "remote plots, far from the prying eyes of the big hybrid seed companies," according to Survival Seed Bank. It claims most companies sell only genetically modified "terminator" seeds that won't reproduce themselves.
The company was already advertising on several conservative talk radio shows, as well as the Drudge Report, but the commercial on Beck's TV show fits right in with "the host's apocalyptic visions of the future," observed Oliver Wills of Media Matters for America.
"There's nothing wrong with a business that serves some kind of demand in the marketplace, but it goes without saying that fearmongering about economic collapse followed by food shortages ... is big-time black helicopter stuff," Wills said.
On the site Starboard Broadside, blogger "Cpt. Robespierre" played along with the Big Brother agricultural conspiracy theory. "What I don't understand is how it would be good to have non-hybrid/non-genetically-modified seeds when the World Government's Black Helicopters could use their chemtrails to dump Monsanto's Roundup Ready seeds across the land until all conventional crops cross-bred into World Government-approved genetically engineered crops that require you to purchase State-Produced Pesticides."
Survival Seed Bank is far from the only seed company that's capitalizing on public anxieties fed by talk show hosts like Beck. There are even online buying guides and reviews of various vendors.
But for all the scary talk and promises of bountiful harvests amid disaster, are survival seeds worth the money? John Wells of the Web site @DecorLicious looked into that last month and found most of what's being sold to plant "crisis gardens" is nothing special -- just "whatever seeds the people could buy the cheapest in bulk and resell."
For those who feel the need to stockpile seeds just in case Beck is on to something, Wells recommended cutting out the middleman and buying them yourself during end-of-season sales at retail stores. Place your seeds in a durable, waterproof container, Wells advised, "then put the container back and wait for the end of the world as we know it!"
